OFFICER CHARGED IN PYRAMID
SCHEME VINDICATED
Madeline Roberts, a 23
year veteran of the Los Angeles School Police Department, became
involved in an investment program known as TEAM Concepts. As with all of
the other victims in the investment scheme, Roberts contributed $200 as
her initial investment. Roberts, who had never been trained or assigned
to investigate frauds or pyramid schemes, was sold on their elaborate
financial investment program as distributed by the organizers which
caused Roberts to believe it was a legitimate program. Two other school
district employees became interested in the program and asked Roberts if
they could join under her, which she agreed to do. These two school
district employees each invested $200, but never saw their expected
$1,600 return on their investment. For this they blamed Roberts, rather
than the organizers of the investment scheme.
The two fellow employees
filed a complaint with the Los Angeles Police Department on May 5, 1999.
The Financial Crimes Division investigated the matter and rightfully
declined to file criminal charges against Roberts. Since Roberts was a
school police officer, L.A.P.D. provided a courtesy report to her
employer, the Los Angeles School Police Department. Rather than simply
conduct an administrative investigation to determine if any
administrative misconduct occurred, the school police department
re-opened the criminal investigation of Roberts. The investigation
spread throughout the department, adding several more school district
police officers to the investigation. Pretending they had a big scandal
on their hands, school police detectives served searched warrants on
several officers homes, work offices and vehicles in their wasted effort
to investigate something that L.A.P.D. saw as a non-crime.
The school police
department, in an effort to prosecute one of its own, first attempted to
get the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office to prosecute the
matter. The Los Angeles D.A.’s office declined. The school police
department finally convinced the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office to
file a misdemeanor criminal charge against Roberts for her involvement.
The L.A. City Attorney’s office agreed to prosecute the matter based
on representations made by the Internal Affairs detectives, which were
later found to be less than credible. The inevitable result was the
criminal case was dismissed. What the school police failed to accept and
the City Attorney’s office finally realized was that "near
participation" by a participant in an endless chain scheme does not
equate to a crime. (People v. Sanchez (1998) 62 Cal App. 4th
460). It is the organizers of the scheme who are criminally culpable,
not the schemes victims, which in this case included Roberts.
Losing the criminal case,
the school district next administratively tried to terminate Roberts
from her position as a police officer. Roberts was represented by Dieter
C. Dammeier, of Lackie & Dammeier, LLP. The first step involved the Skelly
hearing, which resulted in the termination being reduced to a 20-day
suspension. Thereafter, the matter was appealed to the Los Angeles
Unified School District Personnel Commission. At the outset of the
personnel commission hearing, evidence was presented that the school
district failed to timely impose punitive action against Roberts.
Pursuant to personnel commission rules, an employee must receive the
noticed discipline within 126 days of the employee first being advised
of such discipline. In an attempt to circumvent this rule, the school
district changed the dates and reissued the "Notice of
Discipline". Following two days of hearing on the motion to
dismiss, the hearing officer ordered the case dismissed due to the
school district’s violation of the personnel commission’s own rules.
While this was the technical reason for dismissing the case, the hearing
officer no doubt took into account the weak position of the school
district in this matter where, after failing to criminally prosecute
Roberts, was simply trying to do administratively what it could not do
in the criminal case.
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